Back at CES, Sony showed off a flexible 2.5-inch OLED screen. Sir Howard Stringer joked that Jay-Z isn’t the only one who could squeeze Beyonce as he flexed the display while it played a Beyonce music video.

But what exactly is this technology for? It seems like a cool concept, but what practical applications do flexible OLED screens have? Let’s take a look into the future.

Changing the way laptops are designed

One of the key design factors for mobile computers has been the display. It, along with the keyboard, dictate the form factor of the device.

Flexible OLED could change the whole game for portable computers. Since OLEDs don’t require a backlight, they are already very thin. Flexibility pretty much ensures a scroll-like screen in-place of a hinged LCD on laptops.

Watches won’t be the same

Think of the geekiest watch out there. Are you thinking about the Brando mp4 watch? Good. The device is pretty bulky. I’ve got one, I should know. Most people would probably not go for such a device.

However, with a flexible OLED display, that could change the form factor substantially. Additionally, more surface area could be screen instead of just wristband.

Ever expanding phones

Phones have been changing rapidly from simple devices for calling people to texting and Internet machines. Imagine what a flexible OLED could do for your pocketable device. Watching video on a small screen is alright for short trips, but on longer trips, they just don’t do the job. Imagine just pulling out more screen to watch videos.

This ought to take a while

The tiny screen that was on display was probably very very expensive. It isn’t ready for prime time just yet. Regular OLED isn’t even ready for mass production, let alone flexible OLED. However, flexible OLED will definitely be the future of the display. By the way, I spoke this idea over with a friend during a flight. He explained lots of ideas and applications for this technology that appear in the article. Thanks, Kareem.